VOA慢速英语 2008 1212a

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

One of America's largest media companies has sought protection from its creditors¹ in bankruptcy² court. The Tribune Company owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and other newspapers. It also owns twenty-three television stations and the Chicago Cubs³ baseball team.
　

The Tribune Tower in Chicago, Illinois

Sam Zell, one of the nation's biggest property owners, took control a year ago. He led a stock buyout for eight billion dollars. He borrowed almost all of it.

Many buyouts in recent years were heavily financed with debt. But Tribune was struggling with thirteen billion dollars of debt in a recession. It lost more than one hundred twenty million dollars between July and September.

Tribune sought protection Monday under Chapter Eleven of the bankruptcy laws. Chapter Eleven lets a business continue to operate while it seeks to restructure its debt.

Sam Zell blamed what he called a "perfect storm" of economic conditions including a credit crisis. But critics say he simply borrowed too much.

Tribune is the country's first major newspaper group to declare bankruptcy since the rise of the Internet in the middle of the nineteen nineties. Profits have been shrinking as newspapers lose readers and advertisers to competition from new media. The Christian⁴ Science Monitor, for example, plans to publish only online by April.

Newspapers have, in fact, been losing readers since the eighties. But things are a lot worse now. Circulation in the six months ending in September was down almost five percent from the year before. Some papers fell more than ten percent. The two largest newspapers, however, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, reported little change.

The New York Times is third; its was down about four percent. But Executive Editor Bill Keller says the Times is still profitable and had a billion page views on its Web site in October.

"Good journalism⁵ does not come cheap," he says. "And, therefore, you're not going to find a lot of blogs or nonprofit Web sites that are going to build a Baghdad bureau."

He spoke⁶ recently on National Public Radio. NPR says it just had a year of near-record audience levels on the radio and online, as other journalism investments decreased. But over the next year, the nonprofit network predicts a big deficit⁷ because of less giving by companies in the downturn. So this week it cut seven percent of its jobs and canceled two programs.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

1 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

3 cubs   

n.幼小的兽，不懂规矩的年轻人( cub的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lioness guarding her cubs 守护幼崽的母狮
• Lion cubs depend on their mother to feed them. 狮子的幼仔依靠母狮喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

5 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。